Jiah Khan's last journey...

The scene at their Sagar Sangeet home in Juhu was sombre with Jiah’s mother Rabiya and sisters Karishma and Kavita sobbing inconsolably. Apart from Aamir Khan’s mother Zeenat, sister Nikhat and wife Kiran Rao, the others who dotted the spacious apartment were all Rabiya’s friends.

Aamir had dropped in on Tuesday night to express his condolences and Jiah’s co-star Riteish Deshmukh had come to pay his last respects yesterday morning. Her boyfriend Sooraj and his dad Aditya Pancholi were also present, teary-eyed. But by and large the very industry that Jiah had wanted to belong to, had deserted her and her family at their darkest hours.

In between loud sobs, Rabiya was heard ruing why she didn’t come home early from Anju Mahendru’s party that fateful night to have averted her daughter from taking her own life. She told our correspondent, “I will always have this regret for the rest of my life. I wish I had come five minutes early, I could have managed to save my child. She was very sensitive but also a very caring daughter.”

Incidentally, the family’s domestic help (on conditions of anonymity) told our correspondent how Jiah had been suffering from acute depression for a while. She said, “At times, Madam would even resort to harming herself physically. Otherwise, she was very cheerful and happy.”

Romance gone bad? Most people who knew Jiah closely indicated that it could have been a lover’s tiff that led her to take such a drastic step. A friend of the actress told our correspondent, “Jiah and Sooraj came to my place around 18 days ago to have dinner. They had been seeing each other from the past nine months and had broken up recently. Jiah couldn’t take the shock of her relationship going kaput. While Sooraj wanted to end it amicably, Jiah couldn’t get over it.”

The friend also spoke about Jiah’s past relationships that had all ended on a bitter note. “Sooraj has a film coming up and Jiah demanded a lot of his free time. On Monday night, he had sent her a bouquet to end matters peacefully but Jiah thought he was being very sarcastic. That was the last straw,” she added.

Jiah’s mortal remains were laid to rest at the Santa Cruz graveyard around 2.30 pm yesterday in the presence of family and friends.